Chevron Moves Closer to Romania Shale Gas Exploration

U.S. energy major Chevron is moving towards exploration for shale gas in eastern Romania but still needs at least two more permits before it can start drilling, the environment ministry said on Thursday.

Local authorities in Vaslui county, where Chevron has a 1.6 million acre concession, have granted the company planning permits for three shale gas exploration wells.

“This document does not confer the right to carry out works,” the environment ministry said in a statement to Reuters.

“We are talking about exploration, not exploitation, and we are in the first phase of assessing an environment permit”, for one of the three wells, the ministry said.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that Romania and neighboring Bulgaria and Hungary could have 538 billion cubic meters of shale gas between them, slightly more than Europe’s annual consumption and enough to cover Romania’s for almost 40 years.